Thursday, August 22, 2013

Dominican news from around the world

It has been a busy summer with important and joyful events for the Dominican friars, sisters, laity and nuns throughout the world. We are happy to share some of them with blog readers and ask you to pray for the Order and for vocations.

The English province celebrated two ordinations during the month of July. Brother Nicholas Crowe was ordained to the diaconate and Brother Gregory Pearson to the priesthood. The ordination ceremonies took place in Blackfriars, Oxford. Both were ordained by Bishop Malcolm McMahon of Nottingham, a Dominican friar and are pictured above.

The Saint Joseph province in the United States continue to attract large numbers of men to the Order each year. In July, they received eighteen men into their novitiate in Cincinnati, Ohio on August 8th, the feast of our holy father, Saint Dominic. The following week (August 15th), eight novices who had completed their novitiate made first profession. The twenty six brothers are pictured above.

The Master of the Order received the profession of three brothers at the end of the General Chapter on August 8th, the feast of Saint Dominic. The joyful event took place in Split, Croatia.

While here in the United States, the most talked about religious are the Dominicans! This time though it is the Dominican Sisters of Mary Mother of the Eucharist from Ann Arbor in Michigan. They have been on many of the television networks promoting their debut sacred music album entitled 'Mater Eucharistiae'. This young, new and vibrant congregation of Dominican religious women were founded in 1997 and already have 110 members - and are growing. This blogger had the privilege of meeting some of them recently in Connecticut.

The Mexican Dominican province received four men as novices(above) on August 3rd - and so they begin their year long discernment of their vocation with the friars of that province.

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The Dominican friars of the Central province in the United States celebrated the first profession of five brothers (pictured above) and received six new novices on August 18th last.

All these joyful events (and they are just a flavour of the many other events that we could highlight) are a constant reminder to us of the goodness of God to the Order, but more importantly that we realise that it is the prayers of so many that make the Dominican life flourish. Please continue to pray for all the branches of the Dominican family especially in Ireland - that we may all continue to receive vocations for the important mission of preaching the Gospel﻿